Written in homage to American realist painter Edward Hopper, Ho's Nighthawks for solo cello and orchestra conjures up the lonesome, windswept urban terrain that awaits the nocturnal figures in Hopper's painting of the same name. The sweetness of the cello's upper register is used to carve out tender, rising passages that lift the woodwind and string choirs with it in subtle swells of melancholy, while the lower reaches of the instrument bring out the dark night of the soul in low, searching moans. The work floats in mid-air throughout, its true rhythm found in periodic sighs. Surges of emotion from the orchestra, exhaling in rich, aching chords, surround the cello's lonesome lines.
Nighthawks has received the following award:
The SOCAN Foundation's Award for Young Composers (Canada, 2000)
Vincent Ho is a Canadian who is widely recognised as one of the most exciting composers of his generation. He has made waves in the music world of North America despite being fairly early in his compositional career, receiving numerous prizes, accolades, and prominent commissions in a relatively short space of time. Ho’s music is rich and energetic - a unique integration of influences ranging from the visual arts, electroacoustic and natural soundscapes, traditional classical music forms, and the physical properties of the instruments and ensembles for which he writes. His music is sensual, sonorous and richly textured, and Ho gives considerable attention to the audience’s experience of his intricate sound-worlds.
